What we got here? Melodic and hypnotic first person role playing album!

You play as Faxi Nadu, a hero who is unsure if he is fighting dragons or exploring space, so he does both just to make sure. This whole album is kinda strange (one could make the case that Faxi Nadu is always kinda strange) with a lot of inspiration drawn from gaming into deep fantasy worlds. In space with Mass Effect, fighting dragons in Skyrim and going for the glitz and glam in Yakuza. This album is a story of stories, of places, of times, of meetings, of feelings, of emotion, of the external and of the internal, and most of all this album is the story of us, from the very first to The Last of Us.

Track by track from Faxi Nadu

1. Down In Town

This one has That sort of james bond in las vegas glam feel. Confident and cocky, fear and loathing! Getting dressed smart and off to do your part. Pick your side, 007 or 47?

Lots of stuff from a classic access virus, including that strange dynamic bassline. some guitar, scope modular and vst sounds thrown in. Probably the most “clever” tune on the album in terms of editing and tweaks.

2. My Risk

Skyrim. Because you don’t play skyrim, you expereince Skyrim! Has nothing to do with the music of the game, just the vibe and the sense of immersion one can only find on those bleak snowy cliffs with the two moons hanging far above as you suddenly hear the howls of a wolf and a dragon’s shout.

Experiments with the Waldorf Streichfett doing the pads and that vauge atmospheric smeared sort of goa melody. There’s also the Waldorf Rocket and lots of sound from the scope modular.

3. Dawnguard

Another Skyrim inspired track, with a moodier, sinister feel that builds and then lets go into a catharsis of swirling shapes and colors.

The Yamaha DX200 is just going nuts here! 3 layers from the DX200 are running through almost the whole track, changing dynamically and wrecking havoc! Can you follow the evolution of the patches? Raw and gnarly party ripper for the mushroom crowd.

4. Essential Transmission

Here we come with the deep space mass relays and virtual realities. There is no war, only the harvest, the cycle must continue…

Totally surprised here by the meeblip anode actually providing a cool bassline! There is lots of stuff going on here from the scope modular, and you can hear the Waldorf Rocket going through the Mode Machines Wasp Filter towards the end in that psuedo-guitar-like riff.

5. Goa Gone Postal

A Ballet of microdots doing jewish dances underwater. A bit more kinky and mischievous than the other tracks on this album. Sets you on a plane and warps your horrizon. Working on it had that odd feeling as if goa smelled just a bit too much catnip and is now running around the house smashing into things. Sega should make this game, hey someone did make Goat Simulator, so why the heck not

This one has korg electribes all over. The Korg ER1 is doing drums and crazy percs and the Korg EM-mkii is doing lots of silly things here, for examplethe goa style odd leads. The scope modular as usuall is contributing crazy stuff. There are also some random AM radio transmissions recorded and sequenced into the track.

6. Squash Vision

Uncharted. Far Cry. Lost. Strange and ancient things in strange and ancient places. A collaboration with Brent Malik and Dash Hawkins. We got the stems after Dash and Brent cycled through them and built up the mix. I had the idea to run through from the break until the end while still holding the melody that comes in before the break. You can really hear all of us on this one, and as usual with such meshes, a new sound emerges! Deep, melodic, raw, twisted and hypnotic, just the way we like it!

Added some additional channels with the Nord Modular doing the fm/torn sort of piano thing that runs through the track and the Pro Tone from the Scope platform doing the rave style lead. The horns style melody that comes in a few spots is from a EMU Xtreme Lead-1. There’s also a badly disguised Albino preset doing one of the rave things as well.

7. Stockert Radio Telescope

What started as almost a technology demnostrator of the Sonic Core GmbH Scope Platform turned into a full track. Every single sound in the track is synthesized using Scope synths, modular/flexor, fx, and other machines, down to the smallest perc and tone. Stockert Radio Telescope is a real place in Germany, and the facility was at one time owned by Sonic Core.

8. Passing Time

This is a remix to Lindsten Anders aka iCon. A very optimistic and euphoric tune of hope and plur. The original track is a great high octane full-on affair, and we wanted to take this mix towards a deeper style and tone with some classic trance feel while still retaining energies from the original.

We added a deep bassline and an upper layer of stabs. Other than that the track uses mostly the original’s sounds with some tweaks and re-arranges, as well as a few harmonic layers from our various synths.

9. The Dangling Thread Remix

So happy to have our partner in Ocean Star Empire the one and only Mr. Nuno Muacho on this album with this special collab remix to The Dangling Thread. Deep and melodic psychedelic techno. Drift with us far off into the eternal matrix of space-time… from our hearts with love, see you on the next album!